During my time off the council from 2009 through
2013, I would use this blog to comment on issues and decisions made by the town council. I plan to do the same now, again, as a private citizen. As before, I will be fair with my criticism as well as
my support of their decisions. My comments will be on their decisions as a whole council as well as individually. Citizens have commented that council members
need to be “accountable” and “transparent” and I certainly agree. So here we go!
With the campaign season behind us and all of the
controversy involved, it is now time for the new council members to govern and
also fulfill the promises made during the campaign. There were a few promises made by the recently elected council members and I will hold them accountable on those matters.
The first issue that I will address involves
a statement made by Christine Kelly, when under oath, during a special
exception use public hearing on October 17.
You may recall this is when she presented her accusations that Dick Sears, Jimmy Cobb,
Cheri Lee, John Schifano and I all violated different areas of the town’s code
of ethics. (I don’t think I need to
repeat that all of her charges were deemed unsubstantiated and unmerited by an
independent, third party attorney.) As
she wrapped up her comments at that meeting, again still under oath, she specifically stated that if elected, she
would not vote on any matters pertaining to downtown. Some of the issues she mentioned in her
presentation included the closure of a section of Raleigh Street as well as
assorted concerns involving the Village
District Area Plan.
However, as a newly sworn council member, on December 19,
she voted in favor of a resolution declaring the town’s intent to abandon
and close a small section of Raleigh Street.
Let me be clear, I fully support her positive vote as it was the right thing to
do. However, in my opinion, she misled
voters to believe that if elected she would not vote on such a matter. Frankly, the only way she could have been
recused from voting is if she had a direct financial interest in this decision,
amongst other considerations, none of which applied to her. If you wish to research the general statute
which addresses this, please check out NCGS 160A-75. Here is the October 17 meeting video
https://vimeo.com/album/1551244/video/238869841
My concern as a citizen, and yours too, should be how many
more of these reckless and baseless promises were made to voters to get elected?
Thank you for your clarification. I too wondered why she voted when she stated she would not. Perhaps she might have let citizens know why she had to vote given her previous statement. Many will be watching along with you.
ReplyDeleteAnd more recently, at the Jan 2 meeting cast another downtown vote and even weighed in on the subject during discussions. I do applaud how she and the council members voted in support of The Block.
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